Overall meaning : The desert Arabs dwelling around Madeenah, whom Allah held back from going forth along with you in the year of Al-Hudaybiyyah, will excuse themselves, saying to you, if you reprimand them for their staying behind, ‘We were occupied with our property and families, so ask Allah to forgive us for not going forth along with you!’ They will say with their tongues what they do not mean in their hearts.
Say to them, Muhammad, ‘Who, then, has any power at all to intervene on your behalf with Allah if it is His will to do you harm or good?’ Their thought that Allah does not know their inner secrets is not true at all, for He is fully aware of what they do, and none of their intentions and actions is hidden from Him.
You, desert dwellers, did not actually stay behind because your property and families kept you busy, as you claim! Rather, you imagined that the Quraysh unbelievers would put an end to the Prophet and his companions once and for all, such that the believers would never return to their families. Satan made such thought seem pleasing to your hearts. You harboured evil thoughts and thus became doomed and devoid of all good.
Those who do not believe in Allah and His Messenger are justly deserving of punishment, and We have prepared an intensely blazing fire for the unbelievers. To Allah alone belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, disposing of them as He wills. He forgives whomever He pleases of His servants and punishes, in His absolute justice, whomever He pleases. Allah is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful.